Selling our rental - tenants rights?

So we own a house in Auckland that we have rented out and we need to sell so we can buy down here. What are the tenants rights during the sale? We are wanting to try Trade Me first so will be doing everything ourselves. This is the first rental we have had so don't really know much about being a landlord. Do we have the right to take photos of the inside to put up on TM? And can we just tell her we are coming round to tidy up the gardens (she hasn't really kept up with the weeding etc)

yeah you do have to give proper notice of entry - however once you give it notiie can be for say every sat at 1-3pm and that the prop be in tidy condition to be shown prospective buyers etc...

Im all for open homes and telling tenants there will be them than letting the tenants run rough shod over you by saying no to open homes.

We tell our tenants that the property will be shown at certain times, and also may be shown at any other time - eg if private sale most likely will be on weekend and after work....so put that in letter to them.

when selling you run risk that tenants will give notice and vacate and if not sold you have to deal with mortgage etc....but depending on your tenants this may not be a bad thing as empty house may sell faster than with bad tenants....

i would also suggst that you say that you will be entering the property on X day to do gardens and may require reentry each week etc....this is esp important if they have dogs, kids or locks on gates. I would be far more respectful in entry options to people in that situation or if tenant is elderly etc than to normal tenants

also u may like to reassure them if they are good tenants....settlement will be six weeks away and yu will let them know once a prop is unconditional in sale.

You also have to give the tenants written notice that the property is going on the market. And if the tenants don't want to allow open homes, they don't have to - they have to allow "reasonable" access, however the problem is that nothing really sets out what reasonable is. Some tenants say appointment only with 24 hours notice, others say open homes once a week and no other viewings. Your best bet is to negotiate with them. Remember that even though it is your house, it is their home. You wouldn't like strangers traipsing through your home all the time, and they most likely won't either.

As BS says, you also have to give 42 days notice to vacate if you sell with vacant possession, however if it's a fixed term agreement, you CANNOT sell with vacant possession.

As for the gardens, legally you don't have to give notice to go onto the grounds, only to enter the house...but I wouldn't recommend that!! Just talk to her really, tell her what you plan to do and ask her if that's ok.

Our house is in Wattle Downs. As we are hoping to sell privately, then any open homes etc would be carried out by us so we could keep an eye on her!! She has been a pretty good tenant so far so hopefully we shouldn't have any issues. And because we don't live locally, anyone wanting to look through would have to wait until the weekend or something as we aren't driving up there every couple of days! We also had thought that she might leave straight away if we tell her its on the market so were wondering if we should offer her reduced rent "for inconvenience" as we really don't want her to move out before its sold.

Does anyone know about taking photos of the inside?

We have just brought a house that was a rental and man she left it a mess! I know she was on a fixed term tenancy and the landlord and had to pay her out for the balance of the tenancy. She was pretty good about people coming through but didnt do anything to present the house.